5 An Hour
by Dangerous Emotions
Summary: Is NOT what it sounds like! :: Ino failed at math, so her father paid for a tutor.


**Honestly, I thought this would be kind of weird to put up, but I was bored, and I was sitting in my Algebra II class thinking about Kakuzu and how lucky he was to do math easily. Then I thought about Ino, who I have no clue is high in intelligence or not. Then I thought about the one, single, loner KakuzuXIno story and I thought: LMFAO! KAKUZU WILL TUTOR INO!!!**

**Disclaimer: Don't own Naruto Shippuuden.**

**I'm aware that Kakuzu's age is 91. I made at least thirty-something years younger in here...lol, see how bad I am at math!?! LAWLZ.**

* * *

**$5 An Hour**

It was horrible. It was. How could her father have agreed to let the most crankiest, serious, and not to mention _oldest_ math teacher at her school _tutor_ her? The blonde girl went through the day griping and pouting and dreading the after school hours. It wouldn't even be 'after school' to her; she had tutoring. With Kakuzu. Her Calculus and Accounting teacher.

Today life just absolutely sucked.

"Why not have Shikamaru teach you?" Tenten asked that morning once she had heard Ino's mournful news.

"He's too lazy," Ino had mumbled in reply. "Besides, he has other things to work on, you know how brilliant he is." Ino was jealous of her lazy friend and actually envied his smarts. He was the only one to ever achieve appreciation from the old geezer. "I bet you Kakuzu's only doing this because my father's paying him five dollars an hour." At this, Temari, who had joined the conversation drinking Starbucks, sputtered out her decafe. Luckily it missed them both, but was shot clear between them.

"Temari, the Hell?" Tenten asked, both her and the blonde surprised at Temari's sudden splurt and outburst. It was _rare_ to see Temari like that.

"_Five_ dollars!? Are you kidding!" Temari laughed then bent over to catch her breath. "Kakuzu wouldn't even tutor Gaara for fifteen!" Tenten looked over at Ino and swear she saw the girl's visible eyebrow twitch a few good flinches.

"Then…why…?" Tenten asked, but couldn't exactly get the question out. Since then, Ino had been distracted in all her classes, wondering how her father convinced Kakuzu to teach her with just five dollars an hour.

"Probably because it would take a few good weeks for me to finally understand one lesson," she murmured. "He'll make more money with five dollars an hour per day per week than fifteen per hour per two weeks with Gaara!"

The irony of the math she did there...it went unnoticed.

If only Asuma were here…gone away on vacation with Kurenai to celebrate her pregnancy and their engagement. If only Shikamaru weren't lazy, if Neji actually had spare time, if Hinata wasn't busy with Tai-Kwon-Do, if Sakura wasn't such a bitch, and if Kakashi wasn't making excuses to read his 'magazines'.

"_Ino, Kakuzu is the best mathematician in this whole country!"_

"_Then why is he at a __**high school**__?"_

"_Uh, well to quote: 'To teach young brats how to count their money.' Or to keep an eye on his grandson, Hidan, I'm not sure- but that's not the point! The point is even though he's at least fifty-five, it's no excuse! He'll make sure you understand your problems for sure and keep it in your mind!"_

Ino groaned inwardly, the math class quiet save for her. Eyes turned when there was a muffled thud of her head impacting against her math book. Kakuzu looked up from his desk of papers, black hair unruly and the scars at his mouth terrifying. He looked like Billy from _Hocus Pocus_ save for his eyes. The only thing that was admirable about Kakuzu, that some girls had slipped out in gossip throughout the school, was that his arms were tanned and muscular and that for an old guy, he had a bod.

But everyone hated his snappish attitude if you didn't do what he expected of you and you were definitely in the fire pit if you goofed off with him. Kakuzu was a strict ass 'Mother 'effer', and nobody took him lightly. Nobody except his ass of a grandson Hidan. Everyone had lost count about how many times desks were thrown back and forth between the two. It was horrible if they were put into the same room, so Sasori actually took Hidan into his own math class. All was calmer in Kakuzu's periods, but Sasori actually burst in one day to complain and had said,

"I swear to even Jashin, I will find a way to murder your grandson."

Yet, that was not the case here; Ino had more of a problem with Kakuzu than Hidan, considering she always avoided the severely demented kid except when he and Shikamaru broke into fights and she was the one holding back her friend where as Kakuzu and Sasori had to step in to keep Hidan in line.

"I have a history of horrible F's in his class," Ino had explained to a very nosey Deidara, who never _ever_ seemed to go away during lunch. He liked Hinata, Ino saw it, Tenten saw it, Temari saw it, Neji interrupted it. Plus Kiba and Shino weren't too happy that the pyro-crazy Senior had eyes…eye…set on their 'sister.'

"Ever since I started high school, I've had him for Algebra I, Geometry, Algebra II, now Calculus. Each and every time I've failed all his quizzes and barely passed his classes with a 70 C. Now everything is between a thirty-six and a zero! Hell I think he gave me a negative three last week! UUUUGH!" And once again Ino went face down into the wood.

"Sad," Deidara added as if he had seen it before, leaning into one hand. Then he snapped over and smirked at Hinata, "So! You free this weekend!" and at that moment Neji and Kiba grabbed him back by the collar with Shino blocking his way. "Hey hey! Cool it guys, yeah! Ow, watch the shirt! It's designer material you ass!"

"Ino," Tenten started, holding her hands up, "It can't be _that_ bad! Really! It's not like he's going to bombard you so quick you'll think he's the speed of light." Ino gave Tenten a frown so doubtful it was out of character.

"Tenten…I can barely keep up with him in class. To think of being alone with him and mathematical equations…the guy's obsessed with going fast, he has no _patience_!" Ino argued back and pulled her hair. Hinata grabbed her wrists to stop her.

"I-Ino! R-really! Don't take it out on yourself!" she said. Temari sipped her juice box and raised a brow, eyes up to the ceiling. Then she looked back at them and nodded, done slurping.

"Yeah, Kakuzu has no patience...at all. Good luck." Temari was elbowed in the ribs by Tenten. "Ow! Punk! Don't make me beat you up again!"

"Bring it on! I could take you any day whatsoever!"

"Oh yeah? How about when you're in a hospital bed!" Temari and Tenten stood and wrinkled up their sleeves, arms pumped up and fists clenched as their faces were only a couple inches apart.

"I'll fight you with ten IV's stuck in my veins if I have too!" Tenten shouted. Kankuro's brow raised, having turned around from the table he was at to watch the commotion. "...That's hot…" Gaara frowned at him.

"Stop it!" Hinata started as the two girls began to shove each other. Teens were beginning to form around their end of the table, one side cheering for the brunette the other for the sandy blonde.

"Tenten!"

"Temari!

"Tenten!"

"Temari!"

"Shut up!" Ino shouted and appeared right between them, holding them back with one arm each. Hinata appeared behind Tenten and held her back by the shoulders and Gaara was the only one attempting to calm his sister down, Kankuro complaining about wanting to see another rematch between them.

How Temari and Tenten continued to be friends after all their squabbles was a mystery, but they were both the same: Get up and move on. You got beat, you got beat. Ino wished she could have a friendly rivalry like that with Sakura, but nope, if one beat the other down it got rubbed in their face until it smeared like rubber on tar.

"Get back to your seats!" a gruff voice hollered that sent just about every teenager running at the first word. As the crowd dissipitated, waltzing calmly toward them in their black uniform robes were Sasori, Kakuzu, and the principal Tsunade. However, even when the three sternest teachers surrounded them, Tenten and Temari were still shouting back and forth their threats and promises and mockeries right through Ino's head that she thought her ears would go deaf. Suddenly, Tenten and Temari pulled away from Hinata and Gaara and Ino was left with muscle strength pressing at the two girls' breastbones to keep them from reaching each other, but she wasn't as strong as two women. She ended up becoming more of a sandwiched Yamanaka then restricting them like she wanted.

"Tenten! Temari!" Tsunade hollered as she pulled Tenten back, Temari retracted by Sasori who sighed. Ino breathed a sigh of relief as she let her wrists go limp before stretching out her arms. She nearly jumped when she about hit Kakuzu who apparently was standing beside her.

"I've had it with your two constant bickering; this is the fifth time in three days," Tsunade continued, but the girls were not containing themselves. Really, they had no control over their anger when it came to each other, but when it came to everything else they could put up with it. Tenten with Neji's phases and Rock Lee's and Gai's moments. Temari could refrain from injuring her brother Kankuro and be patient with Gaara, who was still learning after his childhood tragedies, although when it came to it she would get into many, many, _many_ fights with Deidara over him. Yet, the two childhood rival girls continued to bear that fresh, hot seething battle ready attitude towards each other. Ever since their pitted round at the Tai-Kwon-Do, Tenten had marked Temari as her goal to beat and since then, just like Ino and Sakura, they've been matched; both winning battles, though Temari held the record, but everyone knew that it never scarred or stopped Tenten and she'd eventually be back.

Tsunade grieved a sigh, holding her forehead as the two continued shouting. "Detention. Different classes. Both of you." Now their attention was caught.

"Miss Tsunade!" they both hollered, but already Temari was being escorted to Sasori's room for detention and Tenten to the principal's office for the same; it was better when they were apart, so this wouldn't happen all over again.

After they were lead out of opposite rooms, Hinata, Gaara, and Ino were left standing there, the oddballs out of everyone else who had returned to their tables to eat, though looking over their shoulders to watch.

Gaara glanced at Kakuzu then tugged Hinata down to the table. Ino was a little lost, but when she looked at the intimidating and tall teacher, she plopped back down on the bench and looked away. Kakuzu glared, then sensing everyone in the whole cafeteria had turned to speculate, briskly turned around.

"Return to your lunch!" that same gruff voice hollered. Immediately everyone starting eating, though more like forcing it into their mouths. Chouji actually shoved his whole tray down his throat then began grabbing food off of other's trays. He slipped Neji's pizza who had turned to look at Rock Lee's sudden strong determination to vacuum a whole salad before facing back to his tray to find that his pepperoni slice was gone. His head turned slowly with an irritated glare towards Chouji, who's cheeks were round and stuffed, resembling that of a chipmunk's. He smiled reassuringly…and awkwardly.

"…Even _I_ couldn't bare to stay in the same room as him," Gaara murmured, watching Kakuzu's back as he left to a group of deans. Ino's head slumped and hung with an added groan. Hinata agreed, then noticed that she was right on the edge of the bench and practically leaning in on the redhead. Gaara's eyes also blinked with realization, though his face didn't show any expression, both of them turned slowly to look at each other, but only Hinata's cheeks were tinted red.

Sitting at the table across from them and sitting to where he could see her, Deidara's visible eye went blank white, blinking once. His hand gripped his chocolate milk carton too hard that he crunched it and splattered himself plus Itachi and his black friend Kisame. (stfu. XD)

"WHAT THE HELL!?!?!" Chibi Deidara suddenly got up and began running and flailing to get to Gaara's throat, both Itachi and Kisame were holding him back. "HELL NO! YEAH! NO! HEEEEY! STOP IT!!! I'M GONNA WRING HIS PALE LITTLE NECK!!"

"Idiot," Itachi muttered. Kisame just snickered, showing unusually sharp teeth.

After lunch was fifth period, which Ino had Anatomy and she was highly acceptable in it. Sixth was Art II, a class she elected only because she had finished her other requirements. The only thing brutal about that class was Deidara's constant critical analysis of her proportions, nosing into her busy life, and usually asking about the flower shop and which combinations would go best with purple and blue better. His crush on Hinata was so obvious Ino laughed at him about it. She felt sorry for him in a way, because no matter what, Hinata wasn't going to date him and there was really no way in his lifetime would her cousin, two best friends, and even her father allow it. Besides, Hinata's crush on Naruto was even more aflame than it was in middle school...yet Naruto still fell for Sakura.

What a complicated love triangle.

Like Ino's old crush for Sasuke, but somehow…Karin won. _Somehow_, the snotty, nerdy redhead won. Ino didn't like worrying about it, but lately Suigetsu hadn't been leaving her alone. She was getting really irritated with him…

"The bangs are off."

"Leave it alone, Deidara."

"The ears are pointed."

"She's an _elf_."

"Why does she have a mustache?"

"Huh?" Ino looked down and blanked out. How had she given her beautifully imagined elven girl a mustache?

"Wow, you're really out of it!" the blonde snickered before erasing it for her. "Still nervous about tutoring?" Ino made an alarming squeak noise and dropped onto her art desk, Deidara retreating his arm in time. The class looked at the groaning girl, Deidara's eye glancing in different directions, then back down to her. He gave her a couple pats on the back.

"Hey, how about I help you?" he asked, trying to get the class to avert their attention. Ino looked at him through her right bangs that had slipped over to the left as she inclined her head a little towards him.

"Help me? How?"

"I go to tutoring with you, tell Kakuzu I need tutoring too!"

"…He won't do it unless you pay hi-"

"Trust me, I got money," Deidara interrupted with a smile. "But you have to do something for me in return."

"…Deidara."

"Yes?"

"Hinata's not going to go out with you." Now it was Deidara who hit his head on the desk and covered his face in his arms.

"DAMN IT!!"

The class turned to look at them again.

The five minute bell to seventh period rang, Ino's English Honors IV class was next. Her locker was right next to Kakuzu's room, something she had tried to move over the years but never got accepted. As she switched binders out, there was a loud slam right next to her.

"You want to come at me again you little pus-" Ino shoved Hidan away from Shikamaru.

"Get off!" she shouted just as Hidan stepped back, Ino wasn't strong enough to repel him too far. Shikamaru shot forward that when Ino gripped him across the torso her shoes skid on the tile in an effort to stop him. Once again a crowd formed as the famous rivaling duo began to start _another_ confrontation.

"Hidan!"

"Shikamaru!"

"Hidan!"

"Shikamaru!" they started cheering.

"It'll be over before you know it!" Shikamaru said angrily through his teeth, struggling against Ino's hold.

"Chouji!" Ino shouted, now in front of Shikmaru with both of her hands against his chest and body now fully asserted in front of him, legs stamped to the ground as a sort of root of her posture in an attempt of trying to push him back. She never had to put this much effort into pushing her friend back, but Chouji had always been the one to keep him restrained. "Chouji!"

"Coming!" Chouji called from somewhere in the crowd.

"Before I know it?" Hidan mocked and laughed. "Not as long as your little girlfriend is holding back! Hell, at this rate I'll be staring at her fat ass for the rest of the day!" The crowd stopped in mid-cheer and Chouji had just gotten through them before stopping himself. Shikamaru's eyes went blank white, one twitching. Hidan blinked then looked around.

"What?"

"_Fat_ ass!?" Ino suddenly shriked, having whipped about that her hair separated in what looked like spikes. Hidan actually blinked and gawked for a second, he had never seen the blonde bitch…a bitch.

"_Fat ass!? Do you know what intense overworked exercises I go through to get my body healthy you schitzo son-of-a-bitch!!_" Ino's visible eye was practically on fire. Her steady and heavy somewhat march towards him made Hidan focus on more than her face. She began cracking her knuckles of each hand and rolling up the sleeves of her uniform coat before swiftly gripping Hidan's collar and jerking him down.

"_You want fat then look in the mirror and focus on your oversized head you twit! You don't know who you're talking to!_"

Hidan just stared at her and blinked, waiting for her teeth to crack. His face pulled off a look that he'd put on after realizing Kakuzu had insulted him. Right now, he was at a loss of words for the suddenly approachful blonde. For the first half of the year he didn't care about her, just noticed she was there to always hold back his opponent. Never thought to provoke her or anything, even when he saw her and Sakura Haruno go at it every now and then. Ino had more dare and flare in her than he thought.

"…Uh-"

"_Uuuuuuh??_" Ino mocked him. "_Uuuuuuh? Got nothing smart to say back to me!? Pick your words Hidan, I'm sure I'll shove them right back in your mouth with my fist, followed by a foot up your ass!_"

Again, Hidan blinked and his cheeks suddenly tinted, "Heh, as long as you're still holding me down I don't care what you do." He smirked as Ino's suddenly flaming personality was uprooted and down poured on. When Hidan raised his eyebrows a couple of times she let go and squealed, retreating backwards to her friends, but bumped into someone else.

"Everyone return to your classes." A hand clamped down on Ino's shoulder. "Hidan, Ino, you two will follow me."

"Awe, Gramps, come on now! We were just having a lil-"

"Shut up Hidan." Hidan pouted, the crowd dispersing instantly. Chouji tugged on Shikamaru's shoulder a few times before they actually took off.

"Get moving," Kakuzu added. Hidan cursed and muttered under his breath as he swung open the door to Kakuzu's room, Ino strangely faced towards it by Kakuzu's hand then let go to walk herself. Sasori was waiting inside, hands full of documents which supposedly he and Kakuzu must have been going over before the fight interrupted them. Well, not really of a fight anyway. Hidan made himself comfortable and plopped down on Kakuzu's rolling chair, kicking his feet up on the desk. Ino settled for sitting in one of the student desks as quickly as she could to get out of Kakuzu's way. Sasori sighed as Hidan began playing with a pen, trying to balance it on his nose.

"So what's the punishment this time Gramps?" Kakuzu swatted him across the head with a handful of papers, knocking the pen clear over the desk and leaving a red mark on Hidan's left cheek. Kakuzu's foot leaned up on the back of the chair and shoved Hidan away.

"WHAAAAH!" Hidan shouted as he collided with the wall and toppled over. Ino stared at him, blinking.

"Up here Ino," Kakuzu instructed. She was instantly standing before his desk and watched as he bent over to fill out a detention form. Ah crud, her dad would not be happy about this. He handed it to her. She took it. Read it. Read it over again then looked at him.

"Today? After school?"

The bell rang and Ino turned to look at the clock.

"Oh no," she murmured to herself, but was caught off guard by the next slip of paper Kakuzu handed her. She took it and hurried out the door while reading it. Her eye widened.

Kakuzu just wrote her a late note?

"Now for you, Hidan," Kakuzu grumbled as he and Sasori walked over with several stacks of paper.

Kakashi was just as surprised as Ino when he saw who had signed her late pass. "…Alright, take your seat," he said and set the note to the side. That was unusual, Kakashi always flicked his notes away carelessly.

_I wonder if he'll bring it up to Kakuzu, just to put it out there and embarrass him_, Ino thought. The two teachers didn't even like each other, so maybe this was a blackmail Ino had unknowingly delivered. She turned around, blinking. _Well, Kakuzu brought it on himself._

"Ino," Hinata whined, looking at her pleadingly with her large eyes. Sitting on his desk behind her was Deidara who took up the job of braiding Hinata's hair. Slowly. Ino sighed and once she got close enough, kicked Deidara's desk that he flailed back into his seat with his legs up over the top and the rest of his body stuck in his chair.

"Hey! Ino I'm gonna- …the Hell? Lord Buddha, I'm stuck!" he hollered, trying to wiggle this way and that. Hinata turned around, braid falling out smoothly as she giggled with Ino at Deidara's position. Everyone else in the classroom had turned to laugh at his situation, but it only ticked him even more.

"I'm serious! Damn it! This HURTS!" Hinata and Ino moved over to the other side of the room, leaving Deidara stuck in his situation. He groaned and complained and gave Ino the evil eye throughout the class. However, when the bell rang the two returned to help him out. Deidara took the advantage of it, falling on Hinata purposely and draping his arm around her shoulders.

"Why thank you," he smiled as she tried to push him off.

"Deidara!" Ino began, holding a fist up. "Do you want me to shove you back into the desk!?"

"Chill out Ino, besides you don't have enough time; tutoring remember?" Ino stilled, watching as Deidara lead Hinata away, stealing her bag and carrying it for her.

"We'll see you later!" he called, Hinata looking over his shoulder before being rushed out. Ino sat down in the chair she and Hinata had pulled Deidara from; this was it, her three hours of tutoring with _Kakuzu_. Her father didn't get off until six twenty-five, which was why she was staying here for so long...plus her detention!

"Oh no…" Ino sighed and hung her head again.

"Ino," Kakashi stated from behind his favorite little book. She looked up and he motioned his finger to come there. She was reluctant at first, but he shut his book and put it aside, leaning on his desk and then onto his enlaced hands, a Tsunade pose. When she approached he smiled, one that made her blush because of his face. Rarely did anyone ever see it because it was always behind a book, even when he wrote on the board. One time he was so focused into it while teaching a lesson he actually wrote what was in it. That little incident made his whole class burst into laughter that the school rocked. Kakashi was in a fury to erase the detailed sentence with all the camera flashes going off and even video tapes being recorded. How close he had come to getting fired if it weren't for his students to back him up.

"Yes, Kakashi?" Ino asked, waiting to hear what he'd say.

"You're a very decent girl, kind and caring for your friends. You do take responsibility as well, and even in the areas you fail, you still try to succeed in them." She blushed, knowing he was mentioning her horrible concept with numbers and equations. "But Kakuzu won't be hard on you."

"Huh?" she was slightly taken. "How do you know that?"

"Because," he smiled again, "You are far from an annoyance to someone as old-fashioned and strict as him. You won't get on his nerves…well, maybe slightly, but that's not the point." Ino's left eyebrow twitched.

"Thanks…Kakashi."

"Anytime," Kakashi flustered, flipping one hand gaily like it was nothing.

"I'M GOING TO WRING YOUR FUCKING NECK!" Both of them looked to the open door and watched as Deidara whizzed by with Neji following in hot pursuit, about kicking him upside the head had Deidara not ran any faster. Coming up only four seconds behind was Kiba and Shino, panting from running so hard.

"Holy God!" Kiba complained, he and Shino stopping to catch their breath. "Neji!! Don't bust a vein!"

"I believe he's already busted several," Shino pointed out. A few more dents and hollers down the hall and the two picked speed back up again. Kakashi and Ino sweat dropped.

* * *

The sky outside was gray, indicating rain. Kakuzu had his class lit with a few array of the lights on the ceiling. The clock was very annoying, very irritating, and did not keep up with her heartbeat.

"Carry the seven," he instructed. "…...Other seven." Ino bit her lip, erasing her mistake and then doing it correctly. She stared at the numbers for a moment, then punched them into her calculator slowly to make sure she didn't get it wrong.

_Tick, tock. Tick, tock._

Ino frowned, her brow twitching again, "…1.3333333...repeating…"

"Then you put eight divided by six."

She wrote it down, squinting at her answer and not agreeing to it. It was those simple things that made her feel uneasy about her work…math had the weirdest answers. With English you could make sense, with art it was the effort that mattered, but with math you got those damned 7.33333 or 5.999 or 5678.923423897522222222222...

And that was just Algebra.

"Now graph it." Ino did. When she dared to look at Kakuzu's face she saw his eyes fall lidded. "Wrong." She followed his finger to the specific points on the graph, explaining which number went where and why due to it's position in the equation.

"…Ok, but what if it's a zero?" Ino asked. He didn't get irritated, he explained that too by having her work out a problem that involved her question.

"Do these five problems," he ordered then stood up to walk over to his desk. Ino forgot how tall he was, all he did was crouch down on one knee and he was at equal height with her sitting down. She tried not to focus on the forever clicking clock, how hot the room was, the annoying scribbling of Kakuzu's pen on more paperwork. He never stopped that stuff. Out of curiosity she had glanced at what he was working on one time a couple years back. The only that popped up was dollar signs and numbers and additions and subtractions and everything. She had turned out to be the last one out of class trying to study what he was doing before he told her it was on a test they were having the next week. She no longer stayed.

After twenty-five minutes, Ino felt a migraine coming on and leaned into on of her hands. Her answers didn't look right, her graphs didn't look right. Hell, she was wrong. She redid them each twice, worked their problems down on paper and not just on her calculator, went over anything she could've missed, going back over the examples and still, they seemed wrong. When she was reluctantly done with it, Kakuzu walked over, glanced at them, then got on one knee again.

"Wrong?" she asked. He grabbed another sheet of paper and started with the first of the five. When he explained each one, she felt her face heating up because the mistakes she had made were so stupid. Save for the last one, she was lost on the last one even when he explained it twice.

"It's the same as this," Kakuzu began again, pulling out her Calculus book and writing down another equation.

No, it was not. Ino shook her head as she glanced over it at least five times; both of the problems. She couldn't figure out how it worked that way, how could the answer be that huge number? Again, Kakuzu went over it, leaving his work out on the paper and afterwards, to her unluckiness, told her to copy it down ten times each problem. Her eye widened, the problem he worked out practically took up the whole page!

"And don't just _copy_ it," he added, "Study how the numbers are worked out." Ino's eyebrow twitched again.

_No, I am __**not**__ going to whine about this!_ Ino shouted at herself and pulled out a stack of paper from her bag sitting on the nearby desk. Again Kakuzu retreated to his own as Ino got to copying. By the seventh time she copied it, it began to look like it was making sense. By the last time she had it down, she had understood what went where and where it changed and became what was leading to the answer and eventually became the answer. When Kakuzu came back, he went on to the next lesson, and repeated everything from there. For the problems she didn't understand she copied ten times and ten times again with her Calculus teacher explaining it as she went along.

How odd, to find Kakuzu _this_ patient. They did _not_ move on until she understood the problem she had trouble with.

By the time the timer set off in a loud ringing marking six o'clock, Ino had gotten through two of the seven lessons she had been lagging in. Kakuzu stopped abruptly from his paperwork, pulling up the stack and clinking it vertically against the table to organize them. Ino did the same, but briefly, before tucking away at least fifty something papers into her Calculus binder.

"Do this in addition to your homework," Kakuzu said as he set a paper on her desk. Ino blinked, awe crud, how _was_ she going t do her homework from a lesson five steps ahead of her? She looked at the paper, finding that it was to copy down all of the vocabulary words of each lesson. Ino didn't have enough twitch left in her eyebrow; that was at least over a hundred words, the four columns of long, quizzical words for each lesson… She'd have half the glossary written down.

"I recommend," Kakuzu started as he slid his paperwork into a carrier bag, "that you copy those words first before starting your homework." Ino paused in standing and lifting her book bag, turning to face him.

"…Really?"

When he looked over at here, it got eerie, so eerie it was to the point that she wanted to take her question back and swallow it thickly down her throat.

"Just do it if you want your homework to be easier," he said. Ino tried to smile, but it failed, so she just nodded and timidly said, "Okay…" Before she took a step though, she remembered about something else.

"Kakuzu...?" He glanced at her while still getting his items together, letting her know he was paying attention. "What about my detention?"

"You already served it." Ino's face turned red once again; she had her moments and being blonde had nothing to do with it.

They left at the same time, Ino practically running out of the hall as Kakuzu locked his room. It was very dark out and thunder boomed ahead. Her father wouldn't be here for at least another forty minutes… Sighing, she headed towards the office front where she sat down on a bench, and, as if dawning on her that it would be the greatest thing to do for the sake of her grades and mostly for her father's smile on his face when he saw her working when he'd arrive, automatically pulled out her heavy Calculus book, the sheet Kakuzu gave her, and a pencil. That was an important fact of math: _always_ use pencil. Unless you were Shikamaru, then you could get away with it.

As Kakuzu walked by, he about paused, but instead merely watched her for a couple of seconds as he headed towards the parking lot. Then, on the edge of the sidewalk to the street, he stopped.

"Miss Yamanaka." Ino looked up, looking as if she was surprised and having been too deep into her work.

"Yes?"

"Make sure your father pays his fifteen dollars." Ino blinked and couldn't help but actually smile at that predicament she should've known would come.

"Okay!"

---

**A/N:: I absolutely HATE getting that 3.333333 answer. It drives me crazy!**

**So, maybe I should make it a two-shot?? It's not actually Kakuzu X Ino, but it's SOMETHING to do with the two of them.**

**Oh, what numbers do to you…I can't believe I actually wrote about a mathmatical situation...**


End file.
